The Garden of Eden

[maestro]

Perhaps the most fascinating myth, I believe it predates the Jewish religion.

There are various interpretations, but for me there is only one: The garden is a state of no knowledge (non duality) where humanity lived one with the unknown (the universe or nature) like animals. In the absence of labeling and categorization there was no death and there was no sin. The beginning of knowledge caused humanity's fall. The ambition to be god, to manipulate the world caused death and sin to enter the world.

[Diebert van Rhijn]

The garden is a state of no knowledge (non duality) where humanity lived one with the unknown (the universe or nature) like animals. In the absence of labeling and categorization there was no death and there was no sin. The beginning of knowledge caused humanity's fall. The ambition to be god, to manipulate the world caused death and sin to enter the world.

The past tense seems unnecessary here. Homo Sapiens is defined by their knowing, without it we're talking about something that cannot be called humanity. All what is animal or unconscious about us still lives in the garden and it's possible to still return to some degree, temporary, by exploring various primal states of mind.

In a way each and every moment paradise is abandoned again. But you've got it right, ideas of death and sin are artifacts of our very development and 'crystallization' of this consciousness. They are not unavoidable waste products however.

[Ryan Rudolph]

It can be interpreted in many ways. However, one might suggest that the temptation of the snake with Adam and Eve could be thought of as the type of world knowledge that creates and fortifies the ego structure such as out of control sensuality, which results in emotional attachments. The snake has been depicted as a symbol of out of control sensuality throughout the ages, from Shakespeare to the present.

The lesson of that story seems to be: the birth of the ego began with sexuality/sensuality, and the knowledge that one can attempt to gain and possess things in this life...

For instance: children's sense of self changes drastically after puberty - before puberty, they are still petty and full of desire, but their desires are less sexual. However when sexual desire begins, then comes the competition with other males to win over females to spread ones genes over the other, and that sort of biological drive creates a certain emotional pain as a teenager, the pain of insecurity. The pain that one is never good enough.

As Richard Dawkin's put in his book - the desire to replicate ones genes to the next generation maybe more powerful than the desire to secure food, clothes and shelther, which can be observed in many third world countries, where women who cannot find enough food for themselves have 8 children.

[maestro]

It can be interpreted in many ways. However, one might suggest that the temptation of the snake with Adam and Eve could be thought of as the type of world knowledge that creates and fortifies the ego structure such as out of control sensuality, which results in emotional attachments. The snake has been depicted as a symbol of out of control sensuality throughout the ages, from Shakespeare to the present.

The problem was the knowledge of good and bad and not the "out of control sensuality". Although according to one interpretation that the real sin of Adam and Eve was to have sex, no doubt promoted by the repressive church.

For instance: children's sense of self changes drastically after puberty - before puberty, they are still petty and full of desire, but their desires are less sexual. However when sexual desire begins, then comes the competition with other males to win over females to spread ones genes over the other, and that sort of biological drive creates a certain emotional pain as a teenager, the pain of insecurity. The pain that one is never good enough.

Sex is not the problem, it is the associated taboos and dogmas, the "knowledge" (of "right" and "wrong" ) associated with it. For proof, look no further than animals.

As Richard Dawkin's put in his book - the desire to replicate ones genes to the next generation maybe more powerful than the desire to secure food, clothes and shelther, which can be observed in many third world countries, where women who cannot find enough food for themselves have 8 children

This has a simple explanation: ignorance and lack of birth control methods, and not really an overwhelming desire to produce children every year imperiling both health and your economics.

[maestro]

The past tense seems unnecessary here. Homo Sapiens is defined by their knowing, without it we're talking about something that cannot be called humanity. All what is animal or unconscious about us still lives in the garden and it's possible to still return to some degree, temporary, by exploring various primal states of mind.

The label consciousness on knowing is wrong. Consciousness does not really know, it is the labelling mind that "knows".

In a way each and every moment paradise is abandoned again. But you've got it right, ideas of death and sin are artifacts of our very development and 'crystallization' of this consciousness. They are not unavoidable waste products however.

They seem to be pretty hard to overcome. Deep entrenchment of knowledge prevents the garden to be regained, and keeps it away from most of the humanity almost forever. A lucky few hear about the enlightenement, Of whom only a fraction ever arrive at the garden again (after childhood).

[Diebert van Rhijn]

Deep entrenchment of knowledge prevents the garden to be regained, and keeps it away from most of the humanity almost forever. A lucky few hear about the enlightenment, Of whom only a fraction ever arrive at the garden again (after childhood).

It seems to me most people are still left in the garden, lacking even the most rudimentary conscious knowledge of 'good and evil' apart from what comes innate or is forced upon us by those who do have some.

The fascination of this myth is that it might just as well describe the future. Basically it's timeless but ages of Judeo-Christianity have created the impression it's about us being banned, a diaspora of the soul. It's ignorance like this that creates so much of the suffering.

Enlightenment could be said to include knowing ones relation to this 'garden' but it's not a question of returning, that would be like crawling back into the womb. It's more about understanding in which ways one is still in it, refusing to get out, to travel through the cruel desert! So there it starts: creating the story of how we lost this or that and how we should try to move back.